SAN Juan City (Metro Manila) Mayor Guia Gomez is willing to reconcile with her former friend and political ally, House Minority leader Ronaldo “Ronny” Zamora.
Gomez, who was elected for the third and final term as city mayor, said she is not closing her doors to the possibility that she and Zamora will patch up their differences.
“They [Zamoras] said they want to reconcile with us. I will wait for them,” Gomez told reporters. “I think it is now time for healing. Let’s heal the wounds that we have created in our city.”
Gomez, a partner of former president and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada and mother of Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, said she wanted to work again with the Zamoras, but stressed that she would be less trusting this time.
“It is so difficult to govern if we are divided. Let’s be one family again,” she said.
“This time I will really be cautious. I was too trusting,” the mayor added.
Gomez defeated Zamora’s son, Vice Mayor Francis Zamora, in the tightly contested mayoral race. She had a lead of more than 1,000 votes.
She got 28,828 votes while Zamora garnered 27,604 votes.
The mayor also said that it pained her so much that their friendship with the Zamoras has been ruined because of politics.
“In the past, we were together with Cong. Ronny. I don’t know how many elections we were together. We both handled the [election] campaign,” Gomez said.
She said she will not hold a victory party because it may only aggravate the tension.
“If I do this [victory party], it’s like rubbing salt over the open wounds. I don’t have any victory party because my victory is so painful. It caused me pain not in terms of money, but in terms of damage in the political culture here in San Juan. They [Zamoras] have damaged the electoral process,” she noted.
The rift started last year when the Zamoras accused the Estradas of dumping them to give way to Councilor Janella Estrada, daughter of Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, and Jana Ejercito, a cousin of Jinggoy and JV.
Janella won the vice mayoral post, while Jana lost to the older Zamora, who is now on his last term as San Juan City representative.